Nonwoven fabrics were developed in an attempt to produce an inexpensive fabric by eliminating many of the various steps required to produce woven or knitted fabrics. Initially, nonwoven fabrics were produced from card or air-laid webs of fibers which were bonded with a chemical binder. Such fabrics have relatively limited usage because their strength characteristics were poor compared to woven or knitted fabrics and their absorbency and softness characteristics left something to be desired because of the use of chemical binders. Major advances were made in eliminating or considerably reducing the amount of binder used in a nonwoven fabric by rearranging or entangling the fibers in a fibrous web to produce what are termed "yarn like" fiber segments and entangled fiber areas. Methods and apparatus for producing fabrics of this nature are more fully disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,862,251, 3,033,721, and 3,486,168. While these techniques improve the strength characteristics of nonwoven fabrics, they still did not have the strength characteristics of the woven or knitted fabrics. These entangled or rearranged fiber fabrics did require less binder and, hence, had good absorbent characteristics and excellent softness. As a result of this, nonwoven fabrics found primary uses in many products such as sanitary napkins, disposable diapers, replacement gauze, medical bandages, and the like. While such products were accepted for uses where absorbency and softness was desired, the various different fiber areas would absorb differently. For example, yarn-like structures would absorb different than non-yarn-like structures. Furthermore, many of these fabrics included apertures or holes and while suitable for facing materials, were not suitable for some absorbent products unless used in multi-layer configurations. While nonwoven fabrics have gained wide acceptance, it is still desired to improve the absorbent characteristics of such fabrics and make them more efficient in use.
It is an object of the present invention to produce a nonwoven fabric having improved absorbent characteristics. It is a further object of the present invention to produce a nonwoven fabric having relatively uniform absorbent characteristics. It is still a further object of the present invention to produce a nonwoven fabric that has improved absorbent characteristics without any deleterious effects on the other desired properties of nonwoven fabrics.